The creative gold rush: tinsel or tears?

I can’t help feeling excited about the buzz in communications recently. Despite the obvious and very noticeable downturn in the advertising business, it seems like everyone has a plan up their sleeve. I just read that the Belgian agency Boondoggle has a co-development project with its employees, where they invest time and share profits for business ventures that might come from it. One of the first (and oh so topical) is the Tweetnotebook that I Tweeted about a while back. I’ve also been asked to help develop no less than 3 iPhone apps recently. And there are others

On the one hand, it’s patently obvious that many of the ideas being thrown about are going to fall flat. Statistics and the laws of gravity have a way of getting the upper hand every so often. But this burst of creativity and optimism is precious in that it provides great momentum. Advertisers might look at this a little askance. Don’t. It’s a fantastic lab for not just creating funky sites and applications. It’s also a real-time experiment in creating buzz and hopefully a little revenue.

It’s a fantastic lab for not just creating funky sites and applications. It’s also a real-time experiment in creating buzz and hopefully a little revenue.

Will there be tears on the road of the creative gold rush? More than likely. But unlike the dotcom boom, this one seems to be built more on fun and is solidly anchored in the social networks that will be its distribution channel. And I think most people are going into it with more realistic expectations than was the case in the nineties.

In the meantime, a bunch of creative people are hooking up with techies and creating things – and this optimism and application can’t be a bad thing.